Before Next Storm, Take a Rain Check

Your roof is dripping, your carpet squishes under your feet, your garden looks like a rice paddy and you’re not sure where the water in the pool ends and the puddles in the yard begin. You’re fighting mad, but how do you fight against water? After the deluge . . . what?

The bad news is that the worst part of one of the worst storms of the century is supposed to hit the Southland this weekend. The good news is that the damage to your home and its surroundings may not be as bad as it looks at first. And there are several ways to make sure that such damage is less likely to happen again.

THE HOUSE

Leaking roofs: Just because you don’t see any brown spots on the ceiling doesn’t mean your roof hasn’t leaked.

“Even a brand-new roof, properly installed, can leak,” said Jim Barry, the president of the Orange County chapter of the California Real Estate Inspection Assn.

A shingle may have worked loose, he said, and water may have leaked into the attic, only to be absorbed by attic insulation. Also, said Barry, if a brown spot shows up on the dining-room ceiling, it doesn’t mean the leak is on the roof above it. The water may be leaking elsewhere and running down a rafter before it drips.

In any case, there’s nothing permanent to be done until the rain stops, said Barry (a rule of thumb for almost all water damage repair). If the leak is a problem, a trip to the attic with towels to stuff up next to the leak and buckets to catch the drops is in order. After the rain, any exposed tar paper on the roof should be covered with shingles (not tin ones, which can easily blow off). But, said Barry, if you’re not used to working on roofs, wait until the shingles dry. They can be slippery when they’re wet.

Leaking foundations: Improper yard drainage is the culprit here. In properly planned yards--or yards that have no underground drainage--a shallow ditch, or trough, runs between the fence and the house, carrying water away to the street. But, said Barry, over time the trough may be filled in with gardens or topsoil and the water collects against the house’s foundation.

The foundation probably won’t be undermined by water from a single set of storms like the current ones, Barry said, but if leakage is a problem and water enters the house through the foundation, wait until the storm is over, dig out a section of the soil around the foundation and apply two or three coats of liquid water sealer around the edge of the foundation. This will likely keep future water out, Barry said.

In the meantime, however, while the storm still rages--sandbag.

Standing water in the house: The carpet is the victim here. You can dry it out with a fan or simply let the water slowly evaporate, but the ultimate result may be shrinkage.

If that happens, said Barry, “people shouldn’t get suckered into re-laying the whole carpet. You can cut a carpet and have a new piece rewoven in there and you’ll never know it. It’ll look like a brand-new carpet.”

THE GARDEN

Standing water: If the water is shallow--say, two or three inches--there’s little to be done, said Anne Roth, a landscape designer at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. If, however, you have a real lake on your hands, you might want to consider renting an electrical pump from an equipment rental company.

The largest of these are called sump pumps and are for the largest jobs: a minimum of six inches in depth. A garden pump is designed for smaller puddles and a third pump, called a trash pump, can remove water that is unusually dirty or murky.

Jim Ellis, a service employee at Baker Rentals and Sales in Costa Mesa, said sump pumps rent for about $55 a day, garden pumps for about $13 and trash pumps for about $80.

When the water recedes and the soil becomes crumbly again, cultivate the soil immediately, Roth said. This allows air to reach the previously waterlogged roots. It also fights the formation of green algae and moss in shady areas.

Sagging trees: Younger trees may sag or topple in a storm. Re-staking them will help prop them up, said Roth. If the leaves are holding water, knocking the water off with a pole or broomstick handle will remove the weight and allow the tree to rebound.

Retaining walls: Failure of these walls “is the thing I’ve been hearing most lately,” Barry said. If the walls are older, he said, they may be only four inches thick rather than the six inches now required for new homes. Also, he said, reinforcement bars and “weep holes” to allow water to escape through the wall may not have been installed. As a result, said Barry, the weight of the water accumulated behind the wall may cause it to crack or buckle.

If the wall fails, it will have to be replaced after the storms end. If, however, it still stands, and a substantial amount of water leaked over the top during the rains, new weep holes should be bored in the base of the wall with a concrete saw. This will not undermine the strength of the wall, Barry said.

THE POOL OR SPA

The filter motor: This, believe it or not, is the main pool problem during heavy rains--not overflowing.

“A brand-new motor is insulated, and if it gets wet it’s not a problem,” said Scott Schneider, the manager of Tustana Pool and Spa Supplies in Tustin. “But over the course of time, it heats up and cools down in daily use and the insulation starts to break down. Sometimes the water will come down so hard that it will splash into the back of the motor, and when the automatic clock turns the motor on, the motor shorts out and needs to be replaced.”

The preventive measure: check the insulation or shut down the motor during rains.

Overflowing: “You’ll have some runoff,” said Schneider, “but it’s not going to be super severe. Some people feel there’s a threat here when there really isn’t. It doesn’t hurt the pump or the equipment when the water is high and if the deck drains are adequate then when the pool starts to overflow a bit, they’ll take care of it.”

If you live on a hillside where drainage is more of an issue, however, and you want to drain part of the pool, activating the backwash valve on the filter can be used to lower the water level a few inches, Schneider said. A sump pump also works.

Draining: Don’t do it, at least not until the storms have passed and the ground is fully dry again--several weeks. Fully draining a pool or spa when the ground water is still high may cause the surrounding ground water to entirely displace the empty pool or spa “like a boat in the water,” Schneider said.